Darlene Yarnetsky-Mudcat Pottery on sun 13 jan 08
Mel, your story really touched me. What a wonderful tribute to a
special lady! I am so glad you knew her and thank you for sharing. I
bet you helped a lot of kids yourself.
I had my share of run ins with teachers. I was one of those that was
in my own world, totally disorganized, and smart enough to be bored to
death with school. Unfortunately, the teachers had my brother first
who was even worse, so by the time it was my turn, the teachers were
already exasperated.
My third grade teacher was constantly trying to speed me up. We had to
copy math problems out of the book onto our notebook, work them and
turn them in. Math was my best subject, yet every day I would lose
recess copying the problems. This teacher called my lazy and put me in
a "slow" group. She also placed my desk at the back of the room -
apparently to keep an eye on me.
One day she asked us all to start reading the social studies assignment
written on the board. I looked on the chalkboard and didn't see it.
Raised my hand and asked. She fussed that it was there, quit being
lazy, and had someone read it to me. I made a point not to ask out
loud again, but to watch everyone else and see what they did.
The next year, after repeated trips to the pencil sharpener to read the
board (I knew not to ASK!) my new teacher sent home a note. Upon my
first trip to the eye doctor I was asked to read the chart. I could
read none of it - not even the big E. The doctor was shocked. I was
10 years old.
I expected nothing out of my first pair of glasses. I had tried on my
older sisters' glasses and none of theirs ever made a difference. I
truly had no clue what I was missing. When my glasses came in, the eye
doctor took me out to the back door of his office which overlooked a
field and then handed them to me. What a wonder it was! I was so
shocked! All of the shining blades of wheat! All the variations in it
that I could see all the way from the door!
The world changed for me that day. I learned about expressions on
peoples faces, the texture of the wallpaper in the kitchen and that
you could see the baseball coming at you when you swung at it.
My 4th grade year was heaven - thank you Mrs. Dixie Webb - the only one
who ever had the patience for me. Though the rest of the school years
were not great, I often thought of her and know that she was much of
the reason I stuck it out.
Bless all you teachers.
Darlene Yarnetsky
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